In
the largest ever tranche,
India will offer 55 oil blocks,
mostly offshore, covering 300000
square kilometers for exploration.
From 1999, India has offered 90
such product-sharing contracts in
4 lots as part of its New
Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).
As part of the country's effort to
boost domestic production of oil,
this offer includes deep
exploration blocks off Krishna
& Godavari basins and near the
Andaman Islands. In the last 4
years, Private sector companies
have made 32 significant
hydrocarbon discoveries. India
imports 76% of its oil
requirements and its rapid
economic growth has increased
energy demands and consequently
increasing the need for more oil.

The
Indian Council of Agriculture
Research (ICAR) and Sri Lanka
Council for Agricultural Research
Policy (SLCARP) announced a
collaborative program to
accelerate agricultural research
and education. The program
includes long-term training of Sri
Lankan scientists, deputation of
ICAR scientists as consultants in
Sri Lanka, collaborative research
project and exchange of germplasm
between the two countries.
Research will focus on hybrid seed
production technology in onion,
sunflower, and chili, tissue
culture virus based cleaning in
citrus, development and testing of
potato varieties, coconut mite
control, developing technologies
to enhance storability of onions,
identification of micro agro
processing areas for rural areas,
etc. As part of this program, 62
participants from Sri Lanka will
attend short-term program and 37
in long-term programs. Thirteen
Indian scientists will sojourn in
Sri Lanka.

Singapore Senior Minister
Goh Chok Tong told Indian
President that his country is
considering a special economic
zone (SEZ) in India that would
help boost Foreign Direct
Investment. The visiting Indian
President and his counterpart said
that the two countries would work
towards creating an Asian economic
community and explore potential
for cooperation in science and
technology (S&T). These
measures will help India realize
its goal of achieving USD 30
billion trade with ASEAN nations
in the next few years.

Environment,
Health and Education

Scientists
from Britain, India, South Africa,
and Namibia published a study in
the journal Plos Biology offering
a way to cure cattle without
killing 3 kinds of Asian vultures.
The prevalent use of the drug
Diclofenac to treat sick cattle
killed Oriental White-Backed,
Long-Billed, and Slender-Billed
vultures. When these birds fed on
recently dead cattle, this drug
caused kidney damage, increased
serum uric acid concentrations
resulting in gout, which
invariably killed the birds. The
scientists offered Meloxicam as an
alternate drug citing experiences
in Namibia where vultures showed
no signs of being affected. Asian
vulture population plummeted by
97% the last 15 years. In a
belated move, the Government
recently banned the offending drug
and is desperately looking for
ways to improve the population of
this species.

The
Indian Council for Medical
Research said that it would start
testing of Ayurvedic, Unani, and
Sidhha drugs on animals. The move
comes after a communist party
member, in support of disaffected
labor, alleged that a popular yoga
and Ayurvedic teacher/practitioner
is using human bones in the drugs
that he manufactures. Following
this allegation, the Union Health
Ministry had issued a statement
that Ayurvedic drugs will be
tested for content. However, the
latest move is to determine the
quantity of heavy metals that is
present in samples of various
products and not for its DNA
makeup as originally planned. In
December 2004, The Journal of
American Medical Association
published a study that showed the
presence of heavy metals in some
Ayurvedic drugs. While heavy
metals are used in Ayurvedic
"Basmams" they are
processed so the metals are
reduced to their oxide and
sulphide form through the use of
some very specific ancient
procedures. The Health Ministry
has not revealed the objective,
sampling technique, study
methodology, and analytical
processes they plan to use. This
is the most elaborate attempt made
to regulate 9000 Ayurvedic
companies that produce and sell
drugs worth USD 14.2 billion.
While allopathic drugs are
"regulated" they hardly
carry any information. These
traditional medicines are expected
to carry a label that contains
nutritional, ingredient, and usage
instructions.

The University Grants
Commission inaugurated an
experimental Educenter text
and video supplementary content to
students on a 24X7 basis. The
joint venture involving the
Inter-University Center for
Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA)
and Hewlett Packard (HP) will be
available to all colleges for a
nominal Rs.10000. A vast network
of colleges is expected to
participate. HP provided the
equipment and software services to
hold the content in a database and
deliver the video on demand (VoD).

In
a video address released through
Arabian television news channel Al
Jazeera, Al Qaeda second in
command Ayman al Zawahiri called
US President George Bush a
"butcher." He claimed
that the CIA directed unmanned
drone missile attack on a village
in Pakistan killed innocent
civilians. Confirming the truce
offer by al Qaeda, he invited Bush
to become a Muslim and be pardoned
for "all that is past."
A White House spokesman said that
the al Qaeda "leadership is
clearly on the run and under a lot
of pressure." The US attack
in Pakistan was meant to kill al
Zawahiri as a result of a tip off
from CIA "assets"
(spies) with Pakistan's spy
organization Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI). This is the
first time there is confirmation
that he was not among those
killed; no one really knows who
was killed in that incident.

Indonesia has continuously been
embarrassed by the terror acts of a
handful of terrorists from the
Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a group with
definite Indonesian origins and made
up mostly by members of Indonesian
nationality.

The Indian Defense Minister
Pranab Mukherjee has invited
international defense vendors to
jointly develop defense equipment
with the 39 labs and factories of
the Government. Mukherjee said
that India had indigenously
developed several components of
its arsenal and joint ventures
with the Defense Research &
Development Organization (DRDO)
can use the ordinance factories to
mass-produce arms for export. The
US Ambassador to India David
Mulford said that India and the US
have "entered a new era"
of relationship and defense
cooperation that will help them
improve regional and global
security and stability.
Participating in the DefExpo, 22
major US defense vendors and the
US Army are visiting India. India
had placed an order for 126 F-18
Super Hornets fitted with Active
Electronically Scanned Array (AESA).
This multi-billion USD order,
awaiting US Congress approval,
will require Boeing and F-18
partners Northup Grumman and
General Electric to source 30% of
components from an Indian
subsidiaries..

Neighbors

Iran
is striking a defiant note as the
world community is set to approve
the referral of its nuclear
program by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Iran said that its decision to
reopen its "research" to
enrich uranium at Natanz is
"irreversible," and
repeated its threat to end all
IAEA inspections in Iran. Iran
said that its program is for
peaceful civilian purposes and
that as a signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty it is
entitled to nuclear technology and
has rights to achieve
self-sufficiency. However, it
turned over to IAEA documents
pertaining to a nuclear warhead
design. Reports say that this
single event turned China and
Russia, who have large investments
in Iran, in favor of a UN
referral. Although, Russia won a
key concession to delay the
referral to UNSC till March buying
time to try convincing Iran to
accept its proposal for joint
enrichment in Russia. India will
be voting against Iran despite
opposition from communist allies.
The communists sheepishly conceded
to this move after a meeting with
the National Security Adviser and
Foreign Secretary and virtually
said that what is good for China
and Russia must be good for India.
This ended a 6-month tantrum
demanding that India not vote
against Iran.

Less than a week before the
scheduled February 8 mayoral
elections in Nepal, Maoist
terrorists attacked an army base
killing 19 police and soldiers
even as demonstrators in Katmandu
protested the assumption of power
by King Gnanendra. The army said
that dozens of soldiers and
Government officials, including
the district administrator, were
still missing. In a televised
address, Gnanendra called for
negotiations and peace. It has
been a year since Gnanendra seized
power and promised national
elections by 2007. A 7-party
political alliance calls the
February 8 elections a
"sham" and an effort to
legitimize the power-grab.

One major stumbling block that is stopping the progress of Indo-US
civilian nuclear deal was India's
vote on the Iran nuclear issue.
Even after India's vote against
Iran at the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), the suspense
is far from over. The US is
expecting India to include more
nuclear facilities, including the
fast breeder reactors, under the
IAEA ambit. This new US
requirement has intensified the
opposition to the deal in India.
Following the announcement of the
deal in July 2005, India had
announced four new nuclear power
plants in Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu),
Kakrapar (Gujarat), Rawatbhata
(Rajasthan), and Jaitapur
(Maharashtra) to produce 8000
megawatts of electricity. Top
Government officials said with the
nuclear deal in doubt, the
Government is looking at alternate
fuels like Thorium. The nuclear
establishment, including
scientists, says that it is
confident of finding alternate
fuels to carry on with the nuclear
energy plan. The four plants were
planned assuming free access to
enriched uranium.